Meaning & use
wife
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Meanings
nouncountable
The woman that a man or woman is married to.
Grammar: Countable noun: use 'a wife' for one, 'wives' for more than one.
Patterns
- someone's wife
- husband and wife
- take someone as your wife
My wife and I have been married for ten years.
He introduced me to his wife at the party.
After the wedding, she became his wife.
nouncountableformal
A woman considered in relation to her husband, especially in traditional or formal contexts.
Grammar: Often used with a possessive: 'his wife', 'my wife'.
Patterns
- the wife of someone
- someone's late wife
The queen was the wife of King George.
She is the wife of a famous actor.
Word forms
| plural | wives |
|---|
Common combinations
- husband and wife
- They live together as husband and wife.
- someone's wife
- His wife works at the hospital.
- take a wife
- In the story, the prince takes a wife from a nearby kingdom.
- former wife
- He still sees his former wife occasionally.
- wife and mother
- She balances her roles as a wife and mother.
Synonyms and how they differ
- spouse
- Spouse is gender-neutral and can refer to a husband or a wife, while wife specifically means a married woman.
- partner
- Partner can mean a person you live with or are in a relationship with, without necessarily being married.
Opposites
Word family
- wifely adjective
- Behaving in a way traditionally expected of a wife.
- wifehood noun
- The state or period of being a wife.
Commonly confused: wife or woman?
wife vs woman
Woman means any adult female, while wife means a woman who is married.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'wife' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'He and his wife have two children' correctly uses 'wife' as a countable noun with a possessive. The first option is wrong because 'since' needs a present perfect ('has been my wife since 2010'). The third is wrong because 'wife' is not a verb. The fourth is wrong because the plural is 'wives', not 'wifes'.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “wife”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.